Making a Stained Glass Pattern

Free stained glass patterns

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
STAINED GLASS DESIGN
PART I
It is often said that rules are made to be broken. Before breaking rules intelligently, it is good to understand why the rules exist in the first place.

The very first principle is a rule: make sure all the pieces in the design are "cuttable." Often, an hourglass, or even "V" shape can be cut with a bandsaw, but be aware that the resulting pieces of glass are fragile and prone to cracking.
The second principle is a concern: you should try to avoid solder lumps where lead lines converge.

The optimal way for lead lines to converge is at 120º angles. This is the smallest possible intersection (in blue).

With lead lines converging into a "T" you can see that the intersection area is a bit larger. This is perfectly fine, but is shown to illustrate a principle.

If you have to converge some leadlines into a very sharp angle, this intersection area will be much larger, and might be lumpier when soldered (in purple).

Let's add a fourth line to the mix, converging into a perfect "+" is the optimal way to minimize lumpy intersections (in pink).

If the lines coverge so that they stagger at the center, the size of the intersection is increased a little (in green).

Let's now look at a circular pieces that is next to a straight line. If the circle directly abutts the straight line, solder lumps will result (in green).

Distancing the circle from the straight line, and joining it with a short solder line, might produce better results (in green).